


Family

by WinryMarellie



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 06:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4252668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinryMarellie/pseuds/WinryMarellie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anteiku is her home now.</p>
<p> Day 2 submission for Kirishima Touka Week on Tumblr. Theme: Family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

Touka hated taking breaks. The silence often left her alone with her thoughts, which always brought trouble to her mind. When asked to sit in the back, she would always sit out at the bar instead, a cup of coffee in hand while she tried to force conversation with someone. 

Today, however, everyone seemed distracted. 

She stared down at the brew she had made herself. Fifteen minutes...that's all she had to endure till she could put herself to work again. Till she could distract herself once more. 

Touka sipped her drink, just a few more days right? Her brother was going to be another year older soon, and she wondered what he might be doing this year. He probably didn't care, knowing him. He stopped caring a long time ago. 

She thought of her own, how just the day before everyone celebrated it with her. It was small, but the people of Anteiku threw a party for her in the back, each of them giving her well wishes and some sort of small gift. It was an unnecessary gesture, but much appreciated. She realized she wouldn't have bothered to celebrate had she been on her own. 

If it had just still been her and her brother...things would have been very different. They only fought more as he got older, and things were growing increasingly difficult between the two of them. She thought of how she wanted to make amends, considering he was her only real family left, but she couldn't see him bothering to do so any time soon. 

The thought crossed her mind. That's right, he was her only real family left as far as she was concerned. 

"Dad's dead!" The words echoed in her mind along with the sound of skin hitting skin. 

She slapped him, didn't she? That's right...they had gotten into a huge fight all those years ago. Ayato was starting to grow, and starting to develop his now current attitude. 

Her eyes grew somber as she thought of the fight the two of them had. How did it devolve to that? That's right...She had been living in denial that their father was truly gone. A part of her wanted to believe he was alive, and that he would come back to them. 

That was the first time Ayato called her stupid. 

There was a lot of screaming back and forth, and before she had known it, she was crying. 

The final straw had been when Ayato shouted those words at her. 

"Dad's dead!" The words echoed around the two of them, and then before she knew it, she had slapped him across the face. Skin against skin following into the silence. 

She looked at him, cheeks tear stained as she tried to compose herself, her brother staring back at her, wide eyed at her response. 

"Ayato I'm..." Touka stammered when she realized what she had done. Her whole body shook as she tried to reach out to him, "I didn't mean to you just....you pushed me too far I'm sorry..."

He slapped her hands away, stepping back and looking her in the eyes. "I hate you, Touka!" That was the first time he'd ever said those words as well. Before she knew it, he left and was gone for the entire evening. 

Ayato eventually returned, but he was even colder than before.

Touka gripped her cup as she tried to push the memory to the back of her head. She chewed on her lip as her hands trembled, trying to keep herself from crying. 

"Touka?" A voice called and she felt something touch her shoulder. 

She looked up to see Kaneki standing next to her, a look of concern across his face. "Is everything okay?" He asked, watching as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." She let out a heavy sigh as she spoke, standing up and taking her cup in hand, "I was just thinking." 

"Ah okay..." He smiled sweetly at her and she couldn't help but return it. There was something contagious about that idiotic grin. "Oh!" He added, "I know we all celebrated your birthday yesterday, but Ms. Irimi had an idea of all of us going out together again after we close tonight."

"Ms. Irimi did?" Touka glanced over at her from across the shop. The woman looked back at her and offered a small smile, waving back at her. "That's nice of her..." 

"Big brother, didn't you also want to take her to the bookstore when your shifts were done as well?" Hinami spoke up, looking up from her notebook as she sat at one of the tables near by.

"Well I-"

"Huh?" Touka shot him a strange look, "Why would you think I'd want to do that?"

"Well um..." He scratched the side of his face as he searched for an answer, "We didn't get to spend a lot of time together yesterday...and I figured it'd be fun...plus they have a really great music section!" He was trying to save himself, "You really like music, right?"

"Oh yeah, big sister you love that stuff!" Hinami beamed at her, "You were just talking about how there were lot's of new albums that you want-"

"Fine!" She interrupted, feeling her cheeks flush a light pink, "We...we can go together when we get off. That's fine." 

Kaneki smiled at her and nodded, "Sounds great." He looked past her and saw a customer waving at him, "Oh, I think a customer needs help." He jogged towards them and turned back to her, still smiling, "I look forward to it." 

Touka watched him and smiled, leaning against the countertop as she watched the workers of Anteiku buzz around her. She let out a small sigh of happiness as she watched them, each person taking the time to smile and acknowledge her existence. 

This was her family now, wasn't it? She didn't really mind.


End file.
